Stocks move south on dearth of positive triggers
KARACHI: Stock prices oscillated within a narrow band as a lack of triggers failed to excite investors on Thursday.
Arif Habib Ltd said the index of representative shares began the day in the green zone but dropped to the red territory in range-bound trading owing to the absence of economic triggers.
Investors’ participation remained sideways in the wake of a delayed deal with the International Monetary Fund for the disbursement of at least $1.1 billion before June 30, it said.
Analyst Ahsan Mehanti said investors remained concerned about a weak earnings outlook amid surging industrial energy prices under the circular debt management plan, which played the role of a catalyst in the bearish close.
As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 40,152.05 points, down 68.75 points or 0.17 per cent from the preceding session.
The overall trading volume increased 20.2pc to 116.5 million shares. The traded value went down 28.4pc to $8.9m on a day-on-day basis.
Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included K-Electric Ltd (27m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (25.4m shares), the Bank of Punjab Ltd (3.3m shares), Soneri Bank Ltd (3m shares) and TRG Pakistan Ltd (2.7m shares).
Sectors contributing negatively to the index performance were chemical (50.5 points), fertiliser (30.5 points), commercial banking (15.9 points), oil marketing (13.2 points) and investment banking (8 points).
Companies registering the biggest increases in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Pakistan Foods Ltd (Rs1,450.90), Pakistan Tobacco Company Ltd (Rs28.85), Millat Tractors Ltd (Rs14.16), Khairpur Sugar Mills Ltd (Rs13.28) and Murree Brewery Company Ltd (Rs5.85).
Companies that recorded the biggest declines in their share prices in absolute terms were Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs202.50), Bata Pakistan Ltd (Rs57), Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs49.37), Blessed Textiles Ltd (Rs26.89) and the Thal Industries Corporation Ltd (Rs22.84).
Foreign investors were net buyers as they purchased shares worth $0.22m.
Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2023